XT660R Heaven

Life on the road is fab...

Friday, 11 July 2014

Oregon - Smith Rocks, a visit round the bend & some new tyres... easy
life

We've had a busy day today, the bikes are all set with two new sets of tyres on the XT's, a new chain on mine, Kevin's has a bit of a slow leak on his rear, (That's his tyre not his arse :-)) & Brian's KTM has just developed a leak on a fork seal, so plenty going on with the bikes...

Smith Rocks was a beautiful place, it's an iconic american climbing venue, well known throughout climbing circles so a bit of a must visit spot for someone with my background. I would love to get some climbing gear out there & go for a play for a few days... great climbing plus a very pretty spot just to chill out with Tellebonne as the nearest town for top ups & beer runs!!

Brian's KTM & my XT both had a bit of attention from a mechanic today, Brian finally has a sidestand that he can use again, it took a bit of drilling but the broken bolt came out & the replacement went in quite quickly.

I had a new 520 x ring chain put on, but no sprockets as Chris Sanden, the bike shop owner, only had ones that would fit a WR. He was a very good mechanic, slick, quick & efficient, we all would recommend his shop after spending nearly an hour there this morning. He specialises in off road stuff, from bikes to skidoo's & quadbikes, (For the US guys that's snowmobiles & ATV's!!).

Chris Sanden at work

The offending culprit

We also found out that there is loads of good dirt bike trails around here, the Three Trails routes started in the 70's & is now going through a revival but there is also stuff out to the east of Smith Rocks & a load of trails out over near the various volcanoes that lie along the Cascades range.

The afternoon was spent fitting tyres & a quick trip into the Mohawk in Crescent as Matt had turned up for an evening of gossip & beer...

Matt practising his bar stance...

Does my bum look big in these??

oooh shiny new rubber!!

So another day passed by, we're ready to head back off onto the TAT tomorrow with a 200 mile day planned, possible finishes include either Canyonville or Glendale, a lot of this depends upon the trails for tomorrow as one is 50 miles further on... We're now in the position where we don't trust the information on the rollmaps, especially where fuel stops are mentioned, so now we're checking everything on Google & making contingency plans for both fuel & motel stops. This is a shame & although it hasn't spoilt the trip as such it has made us lose faith in the information that Sam has provided to us, something that has not been the case for the previous States.